Will Obama push progressive issues tonight?
By louisehartmann
Tonight, President Obama delivers his fifth State of the Union address, and his first since beginning his second term in office. The major points of Obama's speech will likely highlight gun control, immigration, and an economic vision for job creation and economic growth – with another call for Congress to prevent the sequester. And, an official White House preview of the speech indicates that Obama will announce the withdrawal of 34,000 troops from Afghanistan in the coming year.
Progressives are hoping that the President also pushes important issues like infrastructure, immigration, and climate change, and that he takes the same strong tone seen in his inaugural address. The White House press secretary, Jay Carney, seemed to acknowledge this, saying “The president has always viewed the two speeches, the inaugural address and the State of the Union, as two acts in the same play. And the fact is, while there was a focus on some of the other elements of the inaugural address, that the core emphasis that he has always placed in these big speeches remains the same and will remain the same, which is the need to make the economy work for the middle class.”
The Republican response will be given by Florida Senator Marco Rubio, and Senator Rand Paul will present the official Tea Party response. No word yet on whether or not Rand Paul will look into the right camera.
Comments
#2
Do you have any links for Stephanie Kelton?
#3
Oh boy! We've finally got a third party - now it's the Democratic, the Republican and the Tea Party (party). Who decided that this group of fringe loonies rated special time to rebut the State of the Union Address?
#4
It really doesn't matter what the President proposes tonight. Boehner is not going to let in come up for a vote.
#5
Outback GREAT POINT! If the Tea Party can have it's say, in my opinion the Green party, Libertarian, and for that matter the Communist party should also have equal time. Right?
#6
Absolutely, D, Along with the Cult of the Sacred Chicken!
#7
Outback ~ The Cult of the Sacred Chicken? You mean KFC?
Now thats a party I can get behind. Sign me up! Original recipe, please! Save the extra crispy for the lunatic fring.
#8
Nothing so patently commercial, D. A good friend of mine is the High Priestess. Check out mychickensheet.com ;-)
#9
A lovely website it is. I have many friends in the Postal service and I'm sure they appreciate your friends efforts to boost junk mail. Kudos to you both and the best of luck. Unfortunately, I was somewhat disappointed. I was hoping to see a recipe or two. Maybe she could incorporate some culinary inspiration into her web endeavour. Maybe I'm just hungry.
#10
Popeye's Chicken! Not as greasy or smelly as KFC. I don't think KFC ever changes their frying oil. Anyway, that's just my opinion.
And so, very shortly, we'll be hearing from Chicken Man, himself..clucking away more nonsense as always.
#11
In response to Thom's question of the day- I hate to be a cynic, but I don't really care what Obama says in his State Of The Union speech. He's made some great speeches and is a gifted orator. But the problem is, his policies don't measure up to his speeches. (YAWN...)
#12
Just coming off the media coverage of the SOU.... Ever notice how toatlly scripted the TV coverage is? Within a millisecond of a reference to Jennifer Whatsername, the mother of some heretofore unheard of victim of some form of violence, the camera is fixed on her contenance. Funny. She's in the audience and, miraculiously, the network has zeroed in. Anyone else here feel like they've been duped? Or are being played as a sap? Or generally just pissed upon....?
#13
Exactly. I feel the same way. Where is the Green prty response, the Libertarian reponse, the Progressive caucus?
Dear Thom: can the rants you gave today on the 2nd bill of rights and history of the tea party be transcribed? Or in some way put into an 8.5 x 11 sheet so I can afford copies to hand out?
#14
Its surprising that he did not equate higher income with lower income worker leads to higher demand leads to more jobs leads to more tax receipts leads to debt reduction. Lower income by the worker class leads to lower expenditure leads to lower demand leads to reduced jobs leads to lower tax receipts leads to higher indebtedness.
#15
Here are links to Stephanie's interviews with Sam Seder and Harry Shearer:
http://neweconomicperspectives.org/2012/11/stephanie-keltons-appearance-on-sam-seders-show.html
#16
Lets Wrap This Thread Up.
President Obamney (The Dronenator); "Blah, Blah, Blah; bullshit bullshit buuuuuuuuullSHIT!"
" Yes We Can!"
Unfortunaltly y'all are gonna wanna talk about the Blah blah bullshit.
#17
Naw, Nachos, we all knew what was coming. What I was waiting to see was the Tea Party rebuttal that didn't materialize, at least on the network I was watching (should I have been watching Fox?).
The highlight of the night for me was Marco Rubio's spastic lurch for his bottle of water, as though something he was spewing got stuck in his throat. I think Rubio's presentation was rivaled only by Bobby Jindal's rebuttal a few years ago. What an inarticulate rant. "Gawsh, my grandma's on Medicare and Social Security. And I couldn't have made it through school without my student loans. Hey, what say we GUT those programs?" Talk about bullshit!
#18
Jingle Jindal and Curio Rubio,
From my view Rubio is somewhat inverted, hard to figure out, like a really jumbled Rubix Cube. What really alarms me is the failed quality of both politicians. From my view it did take some courage for Bobby Jindal to outright say the Republican Party should stop being the Party of the stupid.
Every time I think of that it just makes me laugh.
However, Rubio would be much more impressive in building a political bridge of new friendship that would be a smooth transition for Cuban American relations. Simply put show me what Rubio can do with that island of Cuba to defuse our long over stressed relation because of Castrol and our own stubborn politics. At least Rubio does not have a canary island tax haven account next door to the Wahhabi. That kind of work would speak volumes in terms of his abilities for all America with this span diversity.
What is very disappointing and many might say just totally unpatriotic is to sell a book to find out what the solution is to our economic problems. Just shout it out, like Thom says tag your it. That’s very likely why our first amendment, to bring grievances to the government does not work. More over if many assemble to air grievances the crowd just gets bombarded with pula gal sticks or pepper sprayed. Or worse hand cuffed hauled off to jail. Now drones are controversy but have been in the economic college research system since nineteen seventy two. America now argues about drone stuff that is decades old. Now some young engineering boost about selling iPod applications to give the best time to cross the boarders at Mexico or Canada. You Who, did you get that mainstream media.
So the recourse is to listen to Paul Kurgman sell his book on MSNBC, or others like INNOCENT FRAUDS, great oxymoron, by Warren Mosler’s, or Stephanie Kelton Explains Modern Monetary Theory.
For me to suspect, some of which don’t have any idea how to express this in the traditional Gaussian approach. This is what the world uses. Yes that mysterious derivative that many professors of economics have never studied, that finite calculus that is the reasoning behind the greed in profiteering banking, actually used by Gauss himself to predict when stars will explode. Very laughable but not when many are like me who have to retire into poverty, it is not funny anymore. Then many wonder why our monetary flux crashes because bunker bankers tweak that derivative to uncharted areas that super nova like an atomic bomb, then run to the tax payer to get reimbursed via the Federal Reserve. We are too big to fail, though America is at that forty seven percent point where almost half the country is in poverty begging for jobs, yet the Republican Party bull horns shout through cable Fox and ABC Wahhabi hate radio Mark Levin too big too big is the government.
#19
You ain't kidden...Rubeo is child who wants sooooo bad in the club. I say "someone" needs to hack into the drone program and start targeting these self righteous assholes...Game on!
But on a less hostle and nonviolent action...About 2/3rds of the country is sick of both the Left and Right parties - and fuck the Tea Baggers...nothen but a bunch of white elitist asshole who do the dirty bidding for Corporate America, just so Those on Wall street and continue to rob the working poor....What would it take to have a "real" movement (not like the trendy unorganized OWS) more like that of the Arab Spring? Several million people taking to the streets, taking over government offices, protesting, boycotting, commiting civil disobedience round the clock...Sure it's alot to ask of people, but what have we got to loose???I mean this is the United States of America...A democratic government; Of the People, For the People, and By the People. Does anyone recall the Boston Tea Party...Boycotting, Protesting, and Sabotage is how this Country was first established...Then the Rothchilds snuck in!
Thomas Jefferson warned us of allowing a centralized banking system in...He even twarted their first attempt.
The pot 'o water is a bubblen
#20
Right on, Nachos! I wholeheartedly concur! Nothing will really change till then...for sure.
#21
☔
#22
Yeah, PALINDROMEDARY, I gotta say I am sorry for the rant, but I am not a happy tax paying citizen...I'm fed up with all the bullshit. To me "things" don't have to be as complicated as we make them out to be. Sure "Life" is unfair, but it seems we really try our best to make it even more so. Don't get me wrong "I don't want to see our society come unglued", I hope we ALL can (as a collective) resolve our economic woes and social issues in a civilized and nonviolent manner. I truely do not have any anamosity towards people with gobs of money (I have many friends whoes net worth puts them in the upper 2%), Nor do I condem people for their political or religious beliefs, everyone is entitled to choose for themselves what is right for them.
HOWEVER, I do take issue with self righteous attitudes, and narrow minded agendas that only serve the few. Both the Left and the Right are guilty, as is ANY social, corporate, or political party, whoes ideas are self serving...A take more and give very little attitude, and blame everyone else (Immagrants, the elderly, the ill, the poor) when the shit hits the fan!
#23
Quote MMnnNachos:"someone" needs to hack into the drone program and start targeting these self righteous assholes...Game on!
You said it! I guess if someone can hack into the Pentagon and then into the Montana Civil Defense Alert system and scare the crap out of people about "the dead rising up out of their graves and attacking people" "very dangerous...do not approach them"...then someone surely would be able to hack into the Drone system...maybe that's just what Iran did to that one drone they captured. ;~)
I understand that we are pretty much already in a kind of quasi-war with China...an internet war. Well, why not? The US has conducted internet warfare already in releasing their viruses on the world when they used them against Iran. And N.Korea is ramping up with yet another underground nuke test. And unless they actually launch any against the US, the Japan reactor accident has already put tons of radioactive wasted into our oceans and atmosphere.
I sure wish someone would hack into the automated dialing system that keeps calling me multiple times everyday...and dial the CEO of those damn collection agencies every hour at random times and see how they like it. The phone company won't help me...blocking is only for local calls (they say!). Ever since I got a new phone number I've been plagued by these calls. I have never actually answered the calls because I know who they are by the device I have connected to my phone and I have no wish to help them out...even to say they have a wrong number. I looked them up on the internet and know that they pester lots of people. I'm kind of curious as to how many years of daily calls from their auto-dialer I will get before they give up...maybe they never will.
In re: your last message...yeah, man, I have not been through half the stuff you've been through but I'm not a happy camper either. I'm not the sort that would go all ballistic like Dorner did...I haven't been through what he went through either. I'm fine until something drastically unexpected happens but that could happen any time...a death in the family...which I've already experienced...just recently...but someone closer would be just horrible.
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Thom - - As a long-time listener (I think as far back as 2003 or 2004), I cannot tell you how happy I was to hear you discussing MMT (Modern Monetary Theory) on yesterday’s show. I discovered MMT a couple of years ago and it has totally changed my view of government deficits and debt. Once one learns and understands MMT principles, one realizes that most of the mainstream media does not know what it is talking about when it discusses government debts and deficits. They basically have it all backwards. That is why it is so great to hear you set the record straight. I would highly recommend that you book Professor Stephanie Kelton from the University of Missouri, Kansas City, as a guest to discuss MMT. I think she is one of the most articulate MMT proponents and is exceptionally good at explaining the basic principles in a clear, easy to understand fashion. She has recently been getting some radio airtime (she was interviewed by Sam Seder on his show and by Harry Shearer on his, among others) and even made it to MSNBC (on Chris Hayes’ show) to discuss the Trillion Dollar Platinum Coin. If you could, it would be great if you could devote a whole hour to her. I would also refer you to Warren Mosler’s ebook, “Seven Deadly Innocent Frauds” (link here: http://moslereconomics.com/wp-content/powerpoints/7DIF.pdf ).